One dead 50 000 stranded in eastern Australia floods

SYDNEY - Torrential rain lashed flood-stricken eastern Australia for a second day on May 22, as engorged rivers swallowed roads and stranded almost 50,000 people.

Police found the body of a 63-year-old man inside a waterlogged house on the Mid North Coast, a river-braided region of rugged hills and lush valleys about 400km north of Sydney.

Authorities launched a major search and rescue mission as survivors clambered atop cars, houses and highway bridges to escape the tide of muddy water.

The storms have already dumped more than four months’ of rain in just two days, with fears more is on the way.

“I must also say that we’re bracing for more bad news in the next 24 hours. This natural disaster has been terrible for this community,” state premier Chris Minns told reporters on May 22.

The town of Kempsey – a farming hub on the banks of the Macleay River – had been cut off with little warning, Mayor Kinne Ring told AFP.

“You often think of rain on tin roof as relaxing, but at the moment it is deafening and horrible,” Ms Ring said on May 22.

“The downpours are torrential and every time it rains, you wonder what is going to happen next.”

Ms Ring said more than 20,000 people were isolated in her local government area alone.

About 140km south in the town of Taree, business owner Jeremy Thornton said the “gut-wrenching” flood was among the worst he had seen.

“It is pretty tough, we’ve had a few moments but you have to suck it up and push on,” he told AFP.

“We are reliving it every second – hearing the rain, hearing the helicopters, hearing the siren.”